Donnie Trumpet and The Social Experiment - Surf

To consider Surf a Chance The Rapper project, an Acid Rap follow-up or even a rap album in general, is to do yourself and the work of Donnie Trumpet and The Social Experiment, a detrimental disservice.

To consider Surf a Chance The Rapper project, an Acid Rap follow-up or even a rap album in general, is to do yourself and the work of Donnie Trumpet and The Social Experiment, a detrimental disservice. The highly anticipated collaborative album debut, spontaneously unleashed for free on iTunes, is elevated and progressive throughout the 16-track opus, which fuses an anomaly of jazz, rap and R&B layers into a sort of audial Interstellar, free of rules or restrictions.

The Social Experiment, consisting of Chicago emcee, Chance The Rapper and his band members Nate Fox, Peter Cottontale, and live-drummer Greg "Stix" Landfair Jr, steadily radiate under their own creative limelight yet project-architect, Donnie Trumpet (alias of 21-year-old trumpeter Nico Segal) is the guiding vision behind the instrumental-heavy robust release.

Despite his celebrity and the constant begging from his following for a follow-up solo album to his 2013 acclaimed Acid Rap, Chance is not Surf's standout - although his jovial rhyme-schemes and charismatic cadences add gravity to the collaborative effort. It's with this release however, that Chance's rap alias converts into something of an ironic understatement, as The Rapper further verifies his value as a progressive artist doing right by his rap roots, while heartening its sonic landscape by disregarding dominant trends.

The musical event drips in unprecedented additions that welcome alternative vocals from Erykah Badu, Janelle Monae and Jesse Boykins III to the track list, along with fervent features from King Louie, Big Sean, J Cole and Quavo, that lure the rap artists out of their comfort zones and onto intricate live compositions.

Harmonies, light percussion and Donnie's dynamic trumpet start-off the long-awaited release before the spoken word-esque 'Warm Enough' induces finger-snapping through eccentric love poems and whimsical instrumentation. While 'Windows' is a worldly experience of tribal ambience packed with profound percussion and vocals, 'Familiar' is a melodic and amusing caper, despite the verbal concept being something evocative of street harassment.

'Wanna Be Cool,' is a millennial anthem for fans feigning some Acidic Chance. Confidence-building ballads, in rap like Cole's 'Crooked Smile' and K.Dot's "i" have received recent enthusiastic mainstream acceptance, but few have been able to tailor the concept to master the social media-age dilemmas that face the URL youth - like Instagram likes and Tumblr-famous clothing brands - and have done so in a way that detours corny or cliché. Chance's verse is as entertaining as it is an honest depiction of what it means to be young and online.
Through 16 sonic experiences, Donnie Trumpet and The Social Experiment provide the results of their anticipated genre-less collaboration. "#Surf is for the people. Feel like I'm watching my baby grow up too fast. Thank you to everyone who's listening," brainchild Donnie tweeted following the surprise release.
But it's us that should be thankful.

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